Per Electronista, Adobe is offering an official upgrade to Lightroom after an extended beta release in conjunction with an update to Camera Raw. Lightroom has been updated to version 4.1, addressing several bugs introduced in prior versions of the software, as well as introducing the ability to process HDR TIFF files. Camera Raw is now on version 7.1 and adds support for 28 more cameras and 24 new lenses. Both upgrades are available now from Adobe.com or the update mechanism in Lightroom 4.

- Publishing photos to Adobe Revel is now accessible via a Publish plugin.

- Additional camera support for several new cameras including the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Fujifilm X-Pro1, Nikon D800, and Olympus OM-D E-M5.

- Corrections for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom.

One issue that remains is double-byte fonts such as Chinese or Japanese characters are still not being exported to PDF.

Bugs addressed in Camera Raw 7.1 include Windows keyboard shortcut fixes, increased stability in metadata editing, and point curve adjustments. A defringe control has been added to the Lens Correction panel. The DNG Converter 7.1 application duplicates this functionality for versions of Photoshop prior to CS6.

It may not be the biggest update in the world, but it makes a difference.

Per AppleInsider, Apple on Thursday released Software Update Version 5.0.1 for second and third generation Apple TVs, bringing various stability improvements and bug fixes to the set-top media streamers.

The update includes the following fixes and changes:

- Fixing an issue that caused some iOS app to have trouble connecting via AirPlay.

- Improving the reliability of Home Sharing connections; addressing an unspecified issue with Neflix login and navigation.

- Fixes for issues affecting stability and performance.

The software is meant for second and third generation Apple TVs only and can be downloaded on the unit by navigating to Settings > General > Update Software.

If you’ve tried the update and have any feedback, please let us know about your experience in the comments.

Per AppleInsider, Apple on Wednesday released an update to its Safari web browser that automatically disables old versions of Adobe’s Flash Player as they don’t have the most up-do-date security features.

After pushing out OS X Lion 10.7.4 which included Safari version 5.1.6, Apple rolled out a separate update for the browser that can be downloaded by Mac OS X 10.7.3, Mac OS X 10.7.4 and Windows users.

According to the Safari 5.1.7 support page, the update is meant to disable older versions of Flash that pose a security risk as they lack the latest vulnerability patches.

Safari 5.1.7 will scan a Mac’s Flash assets for out-of-date software, disable it if found and inform the user via a dialog box. A link to Adobe’s website is integrated into the dialog so that users can easily locate and install the most current Flash Player.

If users need to roll back to a previous version of Flash, they must navigate to the “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled)” folder on their Mac, drag “Flash Player.plugin” into the active “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins” folder and restart the browser.

Apple has become increasingly leery about third-party applications, perhaps due to the recent Flashback malware debacle that affected more than 600,000 Macs worldwide. One of the trojan’s first iterations was discovered in 2011 when it disguised itself as a Flash Installer, though the exploit had nothing to do with Adobe’s software.

Most recently, Apple released a Java update to cope with Flashback and even created a dedicated removal tool for those Mac owners who didn’t already have Java installed on their computers.

The Safari update comes in at 44.98MB download and can be acquired via Mac OS X’s Software Update feature.

Ok, guys, it’s time to update your Mac and help bring down the Flashback trojan malware infection rate.

Per CNET, following an effort to estimate how many Macs remain infected with the Flashback malware, the data from these monitoring efforts have suggested that despite early reports of the malware levels sinking rapidly from efforts by Apple, news organizations, and anti-malware companies, the levels of infections appears to be remaining constant.

The spread Flashback malware was facilitated by a neglected security hole in Apple’s Java runtime for OS X, and at its peak had infected around one percent of Mac systems. To tackle the spread of the malware, initially news organizations covered methods for manually removing the malware, followed by security companies issuing malware removal tools to facilitate this process. Apple then released a series of Java updates to close the vulnerability and also scan for and remove known instances of the malware.

During the time of these infections, security companies set up sinkhole servers and other techniques to monitor the network traffic from the Flashback infections, and determine how many unique computers had been infected with the malware. Following the peak of the malware infection on August 6, initial reports from the anti-malware efforts suggested the infection rates had dropped significantly, with the number of infected Macs decreasing to a reported low of 30,000 in 10 days. However, despite these claims the malware has remained active, and adjustments have had to be made to these numbers.

Following the reports of success at tackling the malware, security company Dr. Web revealed errors in the malware estimation calculations and suggested that the number of infected systems was in fact much higher. Security companies followed this news with more conservative estimates that suggested a more shallow fall in the malware, to an estimated 140,000 systems in late April.

Despite the higher numbers, the number of malware infections did fall from its peak, though while some have hoped the number to fall far lower, the malware appears to have fallen to a revolving infection rate of just over 100,000 Mac systems. In a new report by Intego, the company claims that in the past week it has observed the following numbers from its sinkhole operation:

04/30/2012 – 102,769 infected Macs

05/01/2012 – 96,948 infected Macs

05/02/2012 – 103,779 infected Macs

05/03/2012 – 121,826 infected Macs

05/04/2012 – 102,375 infected Macs

05/05/2012 – 118,593 infected Macs

05/06/2012 – 113,909 infected Macs

Intego notes that these numbers are only the active infections it monitors on a day-to-day basis, and is not the total number of Macs infected. The malware is only active when a user logs in and thereby suggests that this activity difference reflects a steady state variance in when people are using their Macs, which will revolve as Macs are used more in some parts of the world than at others. Therefore the total number of infected systems will likely be much higher at around the 140,000 of previous recent estimates.

Intego has further noted that despite the initial impact in the malware’s activity by community efforts, the numbers appear to no longer be declining and show indications that they may even be increasing. Intego speculates the reason for this is that a small percentage of users have not taken any effort to either update their systems, but it may be more than just updating. Apple has only offered updates and malware removal options for OS X 10.6 and above (its supported versions). However, this malware will infect systems with older versions of OS X, so even if the older versions have been kept up to date, they will be left vulnerable without Apple issuing a proper Java fix. Not only can they still contain the malware, but they also will be subject to new infections by any of its variants.